T5E PHEASANT.] 



SHOOTING-, 



[the pheasant. 



ties whicli lessen its numbers, and which 

 greatly prevent its numerical increase. Could 

 they be housed, and headed, and secured at 

 night like our common farm poultry, they 

 would *' multiply and replenish the earth ;" 

 but it has been found, over and over again, that 

 the young birds which may have been hatched 

 under a hen, although they apparently might 

 assume many of the habits of tameness and 

 domesticity which are characteristic of com- 

 mon poultry, yet, if any one approach them 

 unawares, they fly off to the nearest cover in 

 a sbate of complete wiklness. Mr. Watertou, 

 of "Walton Hall, whose studies, in the various 

 species of animal nature, have been extensive, 

 says, " that, notwithstanding the proximity of 

 the pheasant to the nature of the barn-door 

 fowl, still it has that within it which bafile.-i 

 every attempt, on our part, to render its do- 

 mestication complete. What I allude to is, a 

 most singular innate timidity, which never 

 fails to show itself on the sudden and abrupt 

 appearance of an object. I spent some months 

 in trying to overcome this timorous propen- 

 sity in the pheasant ; but I failed completely 

 in the attempt. The young birds, which had 

 been hatched under a domestic hen, soon be- 

 came very tamo, and would even receive food 

 from the hand when it was cautiously offered 

 to them. They would fly up to the window, 

 and would feed in company with the common 

 poultry; but, if anybody approached them 

 unawares, off they went to the nearest cover 

 with surprising velocity. They remained in it 

 till all was quiet, and then returned with their 

 usual confidence. Two of them lost their 

 lives in the water by the unexpected appear- 

 ance of a pointer, while the barn-door fowls 

 seemed scarcely to notice the appearance. 

 The rest took finally to the woods at the com- 

 mencement of the breeding season." For 

 more extended information on this subject, 

 consult Loudon's Magazine of Natural History ; 

 Mowbray's Treatise on Breeding and Rearing 

 Domestic Poitltrg ; and the Rural Sj^orts of 

 Mr. Daniel. 



Pheasants have, in many instances, been 

 collected in considerable numbers; and 

 under the name of hatteaux, have served 

 for gala days of sport to the nobility and 

 gentry. These exhibitions were painful, and 

 totally opposed in principle to the real spirit 

 548 



of English sports. We never could comprehend 

 a man's feelings in making a great slaughter of 

 game under such circumstances. Sport it cer- 

 tainly is not. To enjoy and obtain this, there 

 must be a given portion of uncertainty and 

 trouble connected with its prosecution. If a 

 man could kill all the game of an extensive 

 and well-stocked preserve in an hour, there 

 would be no sport in the case, in the true sense 

 of the word. It would be one of the dullest 

 and most uninteresting acts of his life ; but 

 where he has to seek, and to find, and to ramble 

 for miles through a thickly- wooded or moorish 

 country, there is pleasurable excitement pro- 

 duced ; and this is the sustaining principle of 

 pure sport, and the true source of all the 

 enjoyments which the pursuit of wild animals 

 can confer on man. It is to wander about ; 

 a constant prey to the alternations of hope and 

 fear ; the disappointments met with on the 

 eve of realised advantages, that constitute the 

 current of exhilarating feeling and lively senti- 

 ment, which we connect with the healthy and 

 natural indulgence in field sports generally. 

 It is a bad spirit for a real sportsman to cherish, 

 to be always craving for great success, and to 

 be perpetually out of humour both with himself 

 and every one about him, if he does not get 

 his bag sooner and better filled than his neigh- 

 bours and competitoi's. There is an exclusive 

 and selfish bitterness lying at the root of all 

 such trains of thought, and the habits they 

 engender ; and the best receipt for eradicating 

 this pernicious principle is, to look lightly and 

 carelessly on the sport, and to make it a means, 

 and not an end. 



Indeed, we know from experience, as well as 

 from what is daily passing around us, that it is 

 impossible to keep large collections of phea- 

 sants from depredations. The slightest noise 

 disturbs them in the night-time, and induces 

 them to crow ; and this discovers the places in 

 which they are congregated, when they become 

 the easy prey of the poacher. " When once 

 they are frightened from their roost," ob- 

 serves Mr. Waterton, " they never perch again 

 during the remainder of the night, but take 

 refuge among the grass, and underneath the 

 hedges, where they fall an easy prey to the 

 fox, the cat, and the stoat. A poacher armed 

 with a gun, finds a cloudy night fully as good 

 for slaughter as one on which the moon shines ; 



